Posted on 06/04/2024 8:42:56 AM PDT by eastexsteve
I live in rural NE Texas, and we experience power outages often. Some last for days. This year, we've been hammered by bad weather, and this round is the 12th time I've been on generator power this year. I've played the "generator game" for decades, starting off with one that I thought would be just good enough to keep me going, running the bare minimum appliances until the power came back on. This was torture. In my opinion, most people make bad decisions when it comes to buying a generator. They think small, and short run times. The truth is, here in Texas, you need one big enough to power your whole house, including A/C. For a 2,000 sqft house with a family of four, (that is VERY energy efficient with all LED lights etc.,) you are talking at least a 12KW - 13KW running watt (not surge watt) generator. If you want to stay married and keep your kids from running away from home, don't think about anything smaller. And, you want it fuel efficient enough to run all day. Also, you want one built to go extended run times. Most of these smaller camping or job site generators won't cut it, since they won't run very long under a load between fueling, and require oil changes every 50 hours. You're not powering a tent or a garage shop. You are powering your house, and you may have to do it for many days. Propane/Natural gas generators are VERY inefficient. Gasoline is somewhat better. Diesel is the best. Here in Texas during the "big freeze" a few years ago, some people even lost natural gas pressure! With the world like it is, and getting worse, you need to consider things like fuel, fuel storage, and fuel availability in case of a SHTF scenario. Before you go plop down hundreds of dollars on a generator thinking you need just enough to get you by, you better give it some serious thought.
I don’t need to power the whole house, just a few rooms.
BKMRK.
8000watts not kw. In before the detail prigs.
“hundreds of dollars on a generator”
Try thousands of dollars.
My NG unit deployed to a post hurricane apocalypse. Unless the neighborhood is tight and prepared, it’s dystopian hell for people. The generator sounds stood out. These homes had signs that basically said don’t think about it. It was Mad Max level stuff. The looter scum were some people who were your neighbors before society turned upside-down.
bkmk
You get what you pay for. We had NG go out here in Texas when the outside temp hit 0. As far as the diesel unit I have, I like going 500 hours between service intervals instead of 50.
I had a bad experience with Briggs and Stratton with a power washer and their service/warranty department. I wont ever buy a BS product again.
Between Generac and Kohler, I am leaning to Kohler, but they both have similar reviews and features.
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Thanks, I will have to look into the maintenance side of things. Here in Colorado, on average I suspect it gets colder than Texas, but I know you have had some cold storms in the news the last few years. Yet we have never had the NG shut off. Seems strange that would be a problem in Texas.
I had to run my generator for 12 hours last week after a severe thunderstorm.
-PJ
Democrats are pumping illegals into all red states... and criminals, gang members and terrorists from China and the Middle east.
I wonder what the size of kickbacks are to democrats the cartels are paying for ‘the right’ to sell citizenship to our country.
DO NOT go with Propane, buy a Diesel Generator as in the event of a real disaster longer than a week will find you without Propane as those Propane Trucks may not be running for a long time but you can get Diesel most anywhere. Diesel Generators are much more expensive but worth it!
for years I have run my home using a honda 2000 generator. We used it to run the fridge and the turtle tank, the TV and keep computers charged and wifi going. A tank ful of gas would run about nine hours.
This was running for several days as PG and E would like to turn off power during fire season so their wires don’t cause fires and burn down whole towns.
Water was well water—we had advance notice of power down so tubs and buckets would be filled for toilet, etc....
Thanks - worth considering.
Our genset is 180 amp (around 21 kwatts), runs on natural gas with auto transfer switches.
System runs perfectly; during power outages it's like nothing happened; we have heat/AC, full kitchen, even the pool machinery keeps on tickin'
Have a neighbor who uses an old Lincoln diesel welder. He has a manual disconnect to keep it in the house only. Kinda loud though.
Being in Arizona I haven’t even started my generator and almost 5 years. Texas must have some hellish weather.
Eh, propane doesn’t go bad. Diesel lasts about a year.
I just have a couple thousand gallon propane bullet tank.
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